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Comparative Politics and Government

Notes the on-going political values and the political system would have trouble in functioning
smoothly and perpetuating itself safely. And survival, after all, is a prime goal of the political
organism just as it is of the individual organism.
• Political socialisation may thus be defined as the process by which an individual “becomes
acquainted with the political system and which determines his reactions to political
phenomena. It involves the examination of the social, economic or cultural environment of
society upon the individual and upon his political attitudes and values.
• A new-born child is not a socialised creature; he is socialised by means of a learning process.
Moreover, such learning “is not limited to the acquisition of appropriate knowledge about a
society’s norms but requires that the individual so makes these norms his own — internalises
them —that to him they appear to be right, just and moral.
• The process of political socialisation starts when the child becomes aware of a wide
environment; he feels increasingly perceptive in response to particular situations and comes
to have an outlook that becomes increasingly coherent and total where before it was
fragmented and limited.
• “The knowledge, values and attitude acquired during me cnildhood and adolescence will be
measured against the experience of adult life: to suggest otherwise is to suggest a static
political behaviour. If the process of adult socialisation tends to reinforce those of childhood
and adolescence, the degree of change may be limited to that of increasing conservatism with
age, but where conflict occurs, radical changes in “political behaviour may result: such conflict
may have its roots in early political socialisation, but it may also be attributable to the
experiences of later socialisation.”
• It shows that the process of political socialisation covers the whole life of a man. Its foundations
are laid in the early stages of a man’s life, its superstructures may undergo change in the
later stage on account of certain new experiences.
• The process of political socialisation has two forms: (i) homogeneous or continuous signifying
that the individuals cooperate with each other in an atmosphere of mutual trust towards
their political system, and (ii) heterogeneous or discontinuous signifying that the individuals
have an attitude of mutual suspicion and hatred towards each other that eventually leads
them to have disaffection with their political system.
• It should be pointed out at this stage that though political socialisation desires, as a matter of
fact, political stabilisation, it should not at all be construed as an anti-change concept. It may
certainly be described as a conservative’ concept in the sense that it stands for a change that
is neither radical nor rapid. It lays stress on this point that when change is the law of nature,
it should be gradual and peaceful.
• The nature of the process of political socialisation at work varies over time and according to
the environment of which it is a part and to which it contributes. It is, therefore, related to the
nature of the political system and the degree and nature of change.
• The process of political socialisation in the form of the acquisition of political orientations
and patterns of behaviour is as applicable to non-democratic societies as it is to the democratic
ones, though it cannot be denied that the emphasis placed on the role of the ‘agents’ or the
system of mechanism may vary both in kind and in its effectiveness.
• A totalitarian state is one that seeks to control all aspects of society and lays stress on the
socialisation in general and political socialisation in particular.
• Simply stated, it means that we should have a brief study of the factors that internalise
political norms and values what men of earlier ages called lessons in civic education, training
for citizenship, behaviour of men in authority and role of social and political institutions.
Thus, the role of the family, school, church, peer groups, mass media and public relations,
etc., should be looked into in order to find out the veracity of this statement: “Since the
individual is continually being influenced in the shaping of his political attitudes, orientations
and values, the process of socialisation goes throughout his life.

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